Thoughts of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary by a first time player.
Background
Having recently finished Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on PC, I’d think it best to log my thoughts on the game. I’d also like to lay down some background on my experiences with Halo. Which is mostly nothing. I played a bit of Halo: Reach preceding my playthrough of CE. Beyond that I played the first mission of pirated copy and a janky pc port of Halo 3 multiplayer. So not necessarily a new player, but far from familiar. The only other experience I had with Halo was the commercials. Let me just say that those commercials were some of the coolest pieces of media I saw while growing up.
Humans Versus Aliens
Halo’s main conflict revolves around the basic premise of aliens versus humans. However, Halo adds onto this formula with a layer of religious fervor applied to the antagonist faction of Halo: the Covenant. More often than not, science fiction is a reflection upon the times we find ourselves in. For a game released in November in 2001, it is strikingly reflective of the times it was made in. Most notably: 9/11. Now I’m not going to pretend I understand that period of history, considering I wasn’t even born yet. However, Halo’s story still echoes that era of history with the UNSC as a standin for the West and the Covenant as some sort of religious country or organization such as Iraq or the Taliban. It is not a one to one comparison as Halo’s history of the Covenant and Humanity is far more cut and dry (at least in Halo CE, I understand the books blur how good the UNSC is, but this is about the first game not the books) with UNSC as good and the Covenant as just plain bad. One could assume that this would be a weakness, but it actually comes in as a strength. The plain views of good and bad in CE allow one to fully immerse the player as Master Chief without worrying about the moral ambiguities of war. Considering the ambiguities of the early 21st Century, I’d imagine this game would hit much harder if I were alive during that time.
Third Party
But Halo’s story isn’t just about the UNSC’s defense against the Covenant. Halfway through the game, Bungie throws a wrench into the aliens versus humans formula that I just gushed about. The so-called wrench was the Flood. It’s name echoes religious imagery of God’s judgment against mankind. The Flood’s presentation echoes classic depictions of zombie hordes of the 20th Century, also calling back to the Xenomorphs of the Alien franchise in their ability to harness other beings. They are introduced as the only enemy the Covenant fear, rightly so. I recall myself actually screaming as several combat forms attacked me in the claustrophobic halls of Halo. However, their introduction is where my positives about the flood end. Following the stellar mission “343 Guilty Spark” in which the Flood are introduced, the player is thrown into the brutalistic halls of the mission “The Library.” There Master Chief fights wave after wave of Flood which relentlessly swarm the player. However, there is little interest in only fighting these enemies. Quickly I realized that UNSC weapons were the best against the Flood while closing the distance so the AI would swap to melee mode as opposed to using ranged weapons. The Flood are effectively zombies with really cool designs, but quickly grow boring after the fifth hallway of them. While Covenant forces require a variety of tactics, the Flood require nothing of the player beyond shooting. While some combat forms do carry weapons, they lack a sense of threat on normal difficulty due to their lack of range and accuracy. Personally the Flood are best utilized when combined with the Covenant as it forces the player to swap between relentless firepower and tactical maneuvers. So to me at least, the Flood are best as a side dish to the Covenant, but fail at performing as the main dish.
Always the Ancients
The Forerunners are Halo’s ancient alien species (at least for CE, later Halos would add on to this, for better or worse) and are responsible for building Halo. Their main representation is in a little ball known as 343 Guilty Spark, a rather squeaky floating metal ball. The Forerunners are depicted as an almost unknowable species in CE and thus are not elaborated beyond building the Halo’s in order to combat the Flood. In the same way the Covenant fulfill the human hating aliens role, the Forerunners fulfill the role of ancient species that are long gone, ala the lost societies of Ancient Greece and Egypt. I have the least to say about this faction due to their mostly background appearances throughout the campaign.
The Campaign
Halo’s campaign is made up of ten missions. The first part of the campaign serves to set up both the Covenant and the UNSC. I particularly enjoyed these missions as they showcased UNSC struggle. They fulfill the science fiction military itch I so often have and do so with gusto. Especially the explosive opening which establishes that alien tech is far superior to human tech via the destruction of the UNSC Heavy Cruiser: Pillar of Autumn. However, not all parts are created equal as there are several instances of copy and pasting of rooms for extended periods of times, leading to a rather montantnous combat experience. I am willing to forgive this fault as Halo CE due the factors regarding its development and the fact that the game is from 2001. The star of the campaign in my honest opinion is “343 Guilty Spark” which masterfully places fear in the player as they watch the Covenant get massacred by the Flood. The maze-like structure of the Halo and sometimes copy and paste nature works in this mission as it gives a sense of anxiety to the player as they try to escape the Flood. As I mentioned earlier, the weakest mission of Halo follows this. “The Library” is purely Flood based and takes place in a Forerunner structure. It’s the weak link of the campaign, only soured more so by the fantastic level design of the previous mission. Finally the true nature of Halo is revealed and so is the fallacy in the Covannet’s religion: Halo is not the path to enlightenment, but the death of all biological life in the galaxy. Halo as a weapon echoes previous science fiction superweapons of franchises such as Star Wars with it’s firepower and Star Trek with its ancient origins. Created by the Forerunners to destroy all biological life to starve out the Flood, Halo transitions from an asset to a threat to the UNSC. From here on out, Master Chief’s goal is to stop the firing of the Halo and thus prevent the deaths of millions. A short detour is taken however to retrieve the captain of the Pillar of Autumn: Captain Keyes. Sadly Master Chief is too late as he is absorbed into the Flood and we get a nice bit of body horror as we rip out his implant from Keyes’ head. Now we arrive at the final mission of Halo CE, in which the players blow up the Pillar of Autumn in order to disable Halo forever. The mission is one part one man army as Master Chief tears through both Covenant and Flood aboard the heavy cruiser. The other part is a mad dash to escape the Pillar of Autumn and Halo aboard a warthog in the now famous Warthog Run. Halo’s finale reminds me of the Star Wars trench run or the APC escape from Aliens.
The Name of the Game is Gameplay
Halo is built upon Bungie’s trifecta of gameplay: melee, grenade, and guns. An addictive combination that continues in every FPS to this day. No overly complicated systems or seemingly random combination of button mashes are needed. Just point, click, and shoot. The simplicity of the system allows for the players to focus on the game itself and less so on memorizing a variety of keybinds or combos. And while it was strange to not have a sprint function in the game, I quickly found myself not needing it as the missions were designed with that in mind. By keeping the system simple, Bungie was able to refine the parts they needed to and thus creating a gameplay loop that still holds up nearly a decade later.
Another large part of gameplay was the AI. Especially seen with Covenant Elites, the AI would respond to the player’s actions in kind. Throw a grenade? They dodge or toss it back. Enemies retreat when hurt and fallback to friendly lines, punishing the player for pushing too far up. Considering Halo’s past development as an RTS game, I’m not surprised in the slightest that the AI is so good.
The gunplay in Halo is satisfying and easy to grasp. Two weapons at a time with limited ammo in reserves. Each weapon serves a purpose and is able to blow through dozens of enemies. The iconic M6 magnum was particularly satisfying to use as it could take out shielded elites in a couple of shots. As for Covenant weapons, the plasma rifle quickly became a favorite of mine as it mixed bullet spraying qualities of the MA5 and the power of the plasma pistol.
Artstyle
Halo’s artstyle is split between three parts: the UNSC, the Covenant, and the Forerunners.
The UNSC artstyle has a very gritty feel to it. Everything looks and feels believable. With tech reminiscent of Colonial Marines from Aliens or the USMC of Space Above and Beyond, the UNSC has some of my favorite designs. Some honorable mentions are: the M6 Magnum, M41 SPNKR, and the D77-TC Pelican.
On the other hand, the Covenant is more curvy and for lack of a better word, alien. While still recognizable as a firearm, Covenant weapons provide their own unique take on weapon design. The Covenant’s artstyle would feel right at home with science fiction stories of the mid 20th Centuries and provides a nice clash against the utilitarian UNSC. My favorite Covenant designs are the Elites. Their armor is some of coolest I have ever seen and swords feature a unique shape when compared with other sci-fi melee weapons.
Forerunner artstyle is harder to nail down as it has changed since their introduction. Admittedly I played most of the game on remastered mode, but I did swap back to check out the older designs. Very much metallic and brutal in nature, the Forerunners feel like an uncaring species instead focusing on function over form. One thing I wished they did in the remaster was have the wall panels of Forerunner facilities be turned off, as the darker and blank nature of the original version felt far more imposing, albeit blank.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Halo is a game that knows what it wants to be. It doesn’t try to be everything at once, instead choosing to focus on a few specific aspects and refining them. It’s simple systems allow the player to fill in the rest with creativity and strategy. The story doesn’t slam you head first with complex lore and background knowledge. The story is eased into and let’s the player immerse themselves in it.
In an age where every game is trying to become the next big thing by adding as many systems as possible, Halo CE offers a much needed reprieve in simplicity. There’s beauty in simplicity, and Halo is one of the most beautiful.
